Yevgeny Yevtushenko Admires Himself
Recently I finished a book only half-remembered from my youth, Yevtushenko’s A Precocious Autobiography. I had no idea that a poet I had long admired was such a phony.
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Storm Heaven, if You Will
By Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall (Rated G) In the midst of a world of light and love, of song and feast and dance, he could find nothing to think of more interesting than his own prestige. -C.S. Lewis, A Preface to Paradise Lost Storm Heaven with your selfless prayers, if you willBut not your […]
Read MoreChristmas Spirit
Where has the love gone, the magic that everyone associated with Christmas? Is it because we insist that the world should be devoid of the love that Jesus Christ brings in the manger, that it should be devoid of the wonder and magic that Santa Claus brings down every chimney?
Read MoreChristmas Joy
The lakes are frozen this time of year
The carolers are out, singing of joy and cheer…
A Covid Christmas
But first we celebrate the great world’s turning
With Advent and the holy Christmas time
With liturgies followed by the Yule log burning
Through feasting and cheer, and each well-sung rhyme
Midnight Mass Christmas Eve
All around lays a gentle silence, as if the world is holding its breath in anticipation of a momentous occasion. In sharp contrast to the silence, cold, and darkness is a church all aglow with the light of several candles as voices raise in joyous song. Jesus Christ has been born!
Read MoreThe End of Christmas
The twenty-fifth of December has come and gone. The radio stations have gone back to their regular programming. The Lifetime channel is no longer showing Christmas movies (though Hallmark will continue through January 2nd). Stores are taking down their Christmas displays. Christmas trees are showing up on the side of the road. It seems like Christmas is over.
Read MoreTradition Tours
“Hello, welcome to Tradition Tours!” the stewardess said brightly. “Thank you for choosing to travel the world with us. We have a few special guests with us today, natives of the countries we’re going to visit. Our first stop is Germany, and I’ll let our German guest take over from here.”
Read MorePeace on Earth
What is it about Christmas music that can steer our emotions so effectively? Sure, all music can do this, but I feel it most deeply with Christmas music…
Read MoreThe Country Christmas Cookie Bakeoff
I inherited the bakery about 5 years ago when my aunt passed away. I’d worked with Aunt Ginny since I was a kid. Aunt Ginny’s passion for baking fostered my love for the baking business. We have always been a family run business therefore family pride was on the line at this bake-off.
Read MoreThe Advent of Our Discontent
Everyone accuses everyone else
Of treason; they’d call each other Quislings
If they had any history, but they don’t
Only Hochhuth and Unferth on the air…
Waiting for the Messiah Someplace Else
The Magi journey through space and time
Our journey is in waiting for a star
To shine upon us all, and lead us to
The Temple where all waiting finally ends…
Untamed
I’ll wear a dress and go to each dance,
But still will I fence and in secret wear pants.
I’ll smile and wave, speak genteel, polite,
And ‘scape out the window and run in the night…
The Good, the True, the Beautiful, and the Assistant Principal
Of math the assistant principal spoke:
The elegance of a geometric proof
When it brightens the mind, the eye the sky
Completing a song of the universe…
Advent
But wait, what is this?
The Lord has spoken to us?
Our single ray of hope
He has taken pity upon us!
The Lady Waits
An angel comes to Earth
With a very special message
To a Virgin who lives
Under the temple’s patronage…
“I Had a Lover’s Quarrel with the World”
Mr. Frost crafts smooth, flowing iambic tetrameter and iambic pentameter, sometimes rhyming but sometimes not. That he makes rhyme work so well demonstrates the excellence of his art; there are only five – arguably six – vowel sounds in English, which rhymed through the pen or keyboard of a learner usually ends in clunkiness or unintended comedy.
Read MoreThe Plight of Man
Sin is a seductive shadow;
the damning dark that dwells within.
It keenly kills all kinds of man.
All folk are formed in its fury…
Ave Maria
“Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee”. Thus begins one of the most well-known, and possibly most debated, prayers in the history of the Church.
Read MoreA Busy Dachshund Puppy
She bites into cranky old Pepper-Cat’s tail
(Something so twitchy must surely taste good)
And Pepper-Cat spanks her; oh, what a wail!
(Dear pup, there’s a difference between could and should)…
